Pickle, Universal
INGREDIENTS. - To 6 quarts of vinegar allow 1½ lb. of salt, 1/4 lb. of ginger, 1 oz. of mace, 1/2 lb. of shalots, 1 tablespoonful of cayenne, 2 oz. of mustardseed, 1 oz. of turmeric. Boil all the ingredients together for about 20 minutes; when cold, put them into a jar with whatever vegetables you choose, such as radish-pods, French beans, cauli- Have a large jar, with a tightly-fitting | flowers, gherkins, &c. &c., as these come lid, in which put as much vinegar as is required, reserving a little to mix the various powders to a smooth paste. Put into a basin the mustard, turmeric, pepper and cayenne; mix them with vinegar, and stir well until no lumps remain; add all the ingredients to the vinegar, and mix well.
Keep this liquor in a warm place, and thoroughly stir every morning for a month with a wooden spoon, when it will be ready for the different vegetables to be added to it. As these come into season, have them gathered on a dry day, and, after merely wiping them with a cloth, to free them from moisture, put them into the pickle. The cauliflowers, it may be said, must be divided into small bunches. Put all these into the pickle raw, and at the end of the season, when there have been added as many of the vegetables as could be procured, store it away in jars, and tie over with bladder. As none of the ingredients are boiled, this pickle will not be fit to eat till 12 months have elapsed. Whilst the pickle is being made, keep a wooden spoon tied to the jar; and its contents, it may be repeated, must be stirred every morning.
SEASONABLE. Make the pickle-liquor in May or June; as the season arrives for the various vegetables to be picked. into season; put them in fresh as you gather them, having previously wiped them perfectly free from moisture and grit. This pickle will be fit for use in about 8 or 9 months.
TIME.-20 minutes.
SEASONABLE. - Make the pickle in May or June, to be ready for the various vegetables.
Note. As this pickle takes 2 or 3 months to make that is to say, nearly that time will elapse before all the different vegetables are added-care must be taken to keep the jar which contains the pickle well covered, either with a closely-fitting lid, or a piece of bladder securely tied over, so as perfectly to exclude the air.
The page as printed has two columns run together, so a boiled version and an unboiled version of the same pickle liquor are tangled in one block. Read it as a single spiced vinegar into which raw vegetables go as each comes into season through the summer.
- Which method to followThe two sets of instructions are alternatives: either boil all the ingredients in the vinegar for 20 minutes and let it cool, or mix the powders to a paste with cold vinegar and let the jar stand warm, stirred daily for a month. The boiled version is ready sooner (8-9 months); the unboiled one is said not to be fit to eat for a full year.
- Quantities in imperial measureBeeton's quart is the imperial quart of 40 fl oz, so 6 quarts is about 6.8 litres, not the 5.7 of US quarts. That is a large crock, and the recipe is easily scaled down by a quarter or a sixth if you keep the proportions.
- Vinegar strength mattersThis pickle is preserved by acid alone, with nothing cooked and nothing sealed by heat. Check the label and use a vinegar of at least 5 per cent acidity; anything weaker is not a reliable base for months of ambient storage.
- Acid dilution over the seasonThe weak point of the method is that every batch of wet, raw vegetables added through the summer dilutes the vinegar a little further. Wipe everything genuinely dry as instructed, keep the vegetables fully submerged, and if you make it at all, keep the jar refrigerated rather than in a warm larder.
- Ingredient names"Shalots" are shallots, peeled and left whole if small. The ginger is dried root, bruised rather than grated; mace is the outer aril of nutmeg, sold as blades or ground. Turmeric here is the powder, and it is doing as much colouring as flavouring, giving the yellow associated with piccalilli.
- SaltUse pickling or plain sea salt. Iodised table salt and the anti-caking agents in it will cloud the liquor and can darken the vegetables.
- Radish-podsThese are the green seed pods that form after a radish bolts, crisp and mildly hot. They are rarely sold in shops, and more beans, cauliflower florets, small onions or gherkins will stand in for them.
- Bladder, and what replaces itA pig's bladder tied over the mouth of the jar was the usual way of excluding air from a store jar, as the recipe directs. A glass jar with a plastic-coated or glass lid does the same job; bare metal lids corrode in vinegar, which may also be behind the recipe's insistence on a wooden spoon.
- YieldThe liquor as written will pickle several kilos of vegetables added over a season; with the vinegar itself running to nearly 7 litres, expect to need a large crock or seven or more litre jars.
Universal pickle belongs to the family of mixed English vinegar pickles that culminate in piccalilli, and its logic is agricultural rather than culinary: one master crock of spiced vinegar is made in May or June, before anything is ready, and then fed through the summer as radish pods, French beans, gherkins and cauliflower come in one after another. Nothing is wasted and nothing waits. Turmeric, mustard seed, ginger and cayenne form the standard Anglo-Indian pickling quartet of the period, a taste generally traced to the East India trade and thoroughly domesticated by Beeton's day. The insistence on gathering on a dry day, wiping off every trace of moisture and stirring each morning with a wooden spoon reflects a kitchen with no refrigeration and no reliable seal, where the housekeeper's daily attention was the only preservative technology available.